Raising Laila

Chapter 20 - Tears and Tantrums

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the ones who need to be held the most are often too busy holding others with their broken arms

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February 21, 2018: 10.09am. 

"Laila, come on sweetheart. We've got to get going! The car will be here s-" Jade started before being interrupted by a loud crash and gasp from the kitchen. Jade cursed under her breath as she entered the kitchen. Today was the first day of the tour dates that had to be cancelled after Jade's 'personal problems', they had almost two months worth of UK dates before a trip to Japan followed by a couple more UK weeks. They had to be at the offices to load up the tour bus by 12 noon so a car was collecting Jade and Laila (and their multiples bags of luggage) from their house at 10.15. 

"Laila! What was that?" She called coming through the door. 

There was no need to her to answer because as she followed the noise she quickly found a cupboard open and piles of thankfully plastic containers all over the floor. Inwardly Jade breathed a sigh of relief, but outwardly she wasn't so calm the car was picking them up in five minutes time! She didn't have time for this! 

"For god's sake Laila! I told you not to make a mess! Go and wait in the other room!" she raised her voice, pulling a hand through her hair. It hadn't been an easy morning anyway, Laila had refused point blank to get dressed, kicking off and having a meltdown on the bathroom floor when Jade had tried to get her in the bath. She was nervous for the tour, everything about it was something new and different; the different people, the different places, the homeschool program Jade had signed her up for, she was scared and this was the only way she knew how to cope. 

Laila stood up quickly from the floor knocking things further over the floor and ran out of the kitchen into the living room, where she sat on the edge of the couch arms crossed over her knees. 

Jade then took Laila's seat on the floor, piling the containers back in the cupboard carefully, it only took her a few minutes before she closed the door and went to find Laila. She planned on apologising she didn't mean to snap at her, she's just stressed, but when she saw the state of the living room she knew that the simple apology and a cuddle until the car arrived wasn't going to be realistic! 

"Laila!? What is going on in here?!" Jade said sternly, Laila jumping at the raised voice before continuing to throw the throw pillows and cushions from the couch onto the floor. "No, Laila! Stop, right now!" she scolded taking another pillow from the girls hand. 

"Do you think that it's okay to throw furniture around?!" Jade scolded trying her best to stay calm. 

"I don't know..." Laila mumbled quietly. 

"It's not! You know that it's not!" Jade sighed clenching her teeth, "Help me pick this up, then you can go and sit in the corner and think about why this was a bad decision," The two then remade the living room couches with the various cushionings currently splayed around the floor only just as the last was placed on top and the room was back to normal, the doorbell rang. 

The car. Laila stood between the front porch and the living room as Jade went to answer it, she wasn't sure if she should or shouldn't be in the corner or not. 

"Laila, come on quickly. We've got to go," Jade encouraged holding her hand out for the little girl as the driver arranged by the groups management company helped carry out the many luggage bags to load in. "You are still in trouble, little lady. When we get to the office you're going to stand straight in the corner, understand?" Jade said sternly, as she helped Laila into her car seat.